{"id":1184298,"date":"2026-01-17T08:11:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T13:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/?p=1184298"},"modified":"2026-01-12T12:15:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T17:15:02","slug":"how-each-zodiac-sign-defines-real-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/nicole-stawiarski\/2026\/01\/how-each-zodiac-sign-defines-real-success\/","title":{"rendered":"How Each Zodiac Sign Defines “Real” Success"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Aries<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

First Place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You find participation trophies to be an insult, Aries, and competing with others is your way of proving to the world that you\u2019re number one. Success to you is something that needs to be quantified, so you\u2019re always keeping score even in areas of your life that are harder to put numbers against. You plan regular dates, never forget to send a birthday card, and read at least one book a month. You also are your own arch nemesis and greatest critic. While your competitive edge can be a turn off, and give you an elitist air at times, the truth is the haters in your periphery just wish they had enough confidence to put themselves out there and ask for things the way you do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taurus<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Popularity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You don\u2019t just want to win the debate, Taurus, you want to walk away from it with as many votes as possible. It\u2019s not enough to have the right ideas or the best ideas, your ideas must ingratiate you to as many people as possible. You never stop playing politics. You\u2019re on good terms with your boss\u2019 boss, you\u2019re the favorite child, and you\u2019re the ex people can never say anything bad about. And all the people pleasing comes down to one single motive: You define success as being remembered fondly by as many people as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gemini<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Always being \u201con\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re out to prove that you can do it all, Gemini. Success for you is your full time job, your side hustle, your book club, your night class, your workout routine, your skincare routine, your volunteering, and your relationships. You go from one thing to another without ever needing to come up for air. Your mantra is \u201cI\u2019ll sleep when I\u2019m dead\u201d. You\u2019re worried there is just not enough time in the world for you to achieve your full potential, so you spend the time you do have fitting in as much as you possibly can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cancer<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Coaching others to victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You live to see the people you support succeed, Cancer. Your direct reports, your mentees, the sports teams you coach all owe you for their many achievements. You find pleasure in helping others grow and passing on the things you\u2019ve learned over the years to people who will put it into action. You drive others past their limits and strive to be a fair but demanding leader. You feel the most success when others don\u2019t want to let you down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leo<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You want to be the arbiter of taste, Leo. The one people come to with questions and look to for answers. You want to be the expert, the consultant, the trendsetter. You want to be the model others aspire to. Your idea of success is about becoming a brand and selling the absolute shit out of it. You work hard, but you love to live lavishly. So if you can turn that lifestyle into your work, you\u2019re killing two birds with one stone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virgo<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Correcting others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You love to know when other people are wrong, Virgo, and the only thing you love more is telling it to someone\u2019s face. A college professor once taught you to structure essays by presenting evidence that X appears to be Y, but it\u2019s actually Z, and you\u2019ve applied that model towards the rest of your life ever since. You are very good at not letting it devolve into a holier-than-thou<\/i> attitude. Your idea of success is to be as woke as humanly possible, but you know it takes constant work. You\u2019re a cultural critic at heart and never shy from diving into the deeper, darker corners of the shared human experience so you can shine a spotlight on what\u2019s less than desirable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Libra<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Splurging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You hate the phrase \u201cwork hard, play hard<\/i>\u201d because you find it\u2019s mostly used by people trying to scam you into working longer hours without a pay increase, but it\u2019s how you live your life. The money you earn is money you spend, and boy do you know how to spend it well. Vacations. Dinners. Everything about you is signature, from your jewelry to your shoes to your stationary. Success is making your dreams come true and knowing exactly how much work it took to get you there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scorpio<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Always out of reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re never satisfied, Scorpio. While your closest friends would look at you in wonder of all you\u2019ve achieved, you\u2019re always underestimating yourself. Always comparing what you\u2019re capable of now to experts who have been doing it their entire lives. You want to push the limits of what humans can do. You want to go beyond what\u2019s standard, what\u2019s average, what\u2019s been done before, which is why you\u2019ll always keep growing, improving, learning. You\u2019d rather be a continual work in progress because you\u2019d become instantly bored and restless if you ever mastered something completely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sagittarius<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You want the gold star, Sagittarius. You want the approval of a senior, an expert, someone you see as a success themselves. You\u2019re not swayed by fame or popularity. What others think matters much less than the small subset of people you\u2019re convinced know what they\u2019re doing and talking about. And you want to be accepted by them. Praised by them. Acknowledged and welcomed into their circle. You want to penetrate the very essence of exclusivity. Because for you, success is working your way from an outsider to an insider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capricorn<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A raise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You don\u2019t work for free, Capricorn, and make that very clear to the world around you. Success is not spending more time at the office. Success is not martyrdom, proving to everyone how much harder you can work. It\u2019s not being a manager and getting to tell other people what to do. You want to work smart, and you want to put effort in wherever the return is greatest. So you are looking for the raise. You have dreams to achieve that require capital to make reality, and you’re not afraid to ask for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aquarius<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Supporting your family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Success to you, Aquarius, is all about giving back. You want to make sure the people closest to you are healthy and happy and taken care of. You want to build a family of your own, as well as support your parents, siblings, nieces, and nephews in whatever ways you can. Success means no one in your inner circle is worrying about whether they can pay their bills at night. And you\u2019re proud that your hard work can give them that peace of mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pisces<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Seeing the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You want to feel like you\u2019ve seen most of what the world has to offer, Pisces. You wouldn\u2019t be satisfied with staying in your hometown, or at the same company, or in the same role, forever. You want to put your dreams into action and expand your experience to include as many different points of view as possible. You want to be accepted by different cultures and kinds of people. Because success to you is about feeling like you belong to something much bigger than yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How do you define success? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":186664098,"featured_media":1184299,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"thoughtcatalog_call_to_action":"","tc_post_redirect":"","thoughtcatalog_is_sponsored_content":"0","footnotes":""},"categories":[433445943],"tags":[],"anchortext":[],"posttemplate":[],"adcampaign":[],"coauthors":[433437502],"class_list":["post-1184298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-astrology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/zulfugar-karimov-Aifnco3gnB4-unsplash.jpg","author_meta":null,"photo_credit":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/186664098"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1184298"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1184300,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184298\/revisions\/1184300"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1184299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1184298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1184298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1184298"},{"taxonomy":"anchortext","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/anchortext?post=1184298"},{"taxonomy":"posttemplate","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posttemplate?post=1184298"},{"taxonomy":"adcampaign","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/adcampaign?post=1184298"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1184298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}